2023-06-23 15:44:21
The psychological distress suffered by a growing minority of children and adolescents has been aggravated by the health crisis. This phenomenon, observed in other countries, seems to particularly concern adolescent girls and young women. During the third part of the EpiCov survey carried out in July 2021, the questionnaire focused on the mental health of the respondents and, where applicable, that of one of the children aged 3 to 17 living with them. It is difficult to accurately assess the mental health of a child from what one of his parents reports. However, the questionnaire used in EpiCov makes it possible to estimate that 10% of boys and 7% of girls between the ages of 3 and 17 have psychosocial difficulties. These affect different dimensions and show significant disparities, observed very early in childhood, between girls and boys. The latter have more externalized problems (behaviour, hyperactivity, inattention), which tend to decrease with age; while girls present more emotional problems (anxiety, sadness), which tend to increase with age.
“Nearly one in six children needed care for a psychological reason between March 2020 and July 2021”
A parental questionnaire to identify children’s psychosocial difficulties
The parental “strengths and weaknesses” questionnaire (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ]) consists of 25 questions describing a type of behavior and asking if, concerning the child during the last six months, the statement is: “Not true”, “Somewhat true” or “Very true”. The 25 answers are grouped into five in five sub-dimensions which refer to difficulties of order 1/ emotional, 2/ behavioral (anger, violence, theft, disobedience), 3/ attentional with or without hyperactivity and 4/ relational, as well than to 5/ the child’s prosocial abilities (Table 1). For each dimension, a difficulty or aptitude score (from 0 to 10) is calculated. The sum of the first four dimensions makes it possible to establish an overall score out of 40 of the child’s psychosocial difficulties. In addition, the parent is asked if he considers that his child presents any difficulties and what the repercussions are on the life of the child, his learning, family life and his hobbies. The creators of the SDQ also offer a score on 10 of these questions to establish a difficulty impact score.
Between the start of the epidemic in March 2020 and the survey in July 2021, 12% of 3-17 year olds consulted a health professional for a psychological reason, a proportion which varies according to age and sex. . Among 3-17 year olds, the main professional consulted for this reason is the psychologist, while among adults it is the general practitioner. Taking into account the children who did not consult, but whose parents consider that they needed help for psychological difficulties and that this help was the responsibility of a health professional, 15% of children would have needed care for these reasons, i.e. nearly one in six children. The main factor associated with the child’s psychosocial difficulties is the mental health of the responding parent. A high time of exposure to screens and a low time devoted to reading and physical activities are elements associated with these difficulties. Significant social inequalities are observed. They concern both psychosocial difficulties, to the detriment of the lowest standards of living, and the use of care, which is more frequent among the highest levels of education.
“A complementarity with the Enabee survey of Public Health France which announces that 13% of students aged 6 to 11 have mental health problems.
What you must remember
– from an early age, psychosocial difficulties differentiated by sex; – according to the parents, one in eight children is affected by psychosocial problems; – psychologists: main recourse to child mental health care; – with equal psychological difficulties, more frequent recourse to care among the wealthiest; – for the child, difficulties strongly correlated with the parent’s mental health and screen time.
• Nearly one in six children needed care for a psychological reason between March 2020 and July 2021, Jean-Baptist Hazo (DREES)in collaboration with Alexandra Rouquette (Inserm) and the EpiCov group (Nathalie Bajos and Josiane Warszawski (scientific co-leaders), Guillaume Bagein (DREES), Vianney Costemalle (DREES), Émilie Counil Ined), Thomas Deroyon (DREES), Jeanna-Ève Franck (Inserm), Nathalie Lydié (Public Health France), Claude Martin (CNRS), Laurence Meyer (Inserm, univ. Paris-Saclay, AP-HP), Ariane Pailhé (INED), Delphine Rahib (French Public Health), Philippe Raynaud (DREES), Patrick Sillard (INSEE), Rémy Slama (Inserm). The authors would like to thank Samuel Allain, Céline Loubières, Viviane Kovess-Masféty and Antoine Vanier. Drees, June 2023, n° 1271.
1687545782
#EpiCov #psychological #impact #health #crisis #children